West Chester uses five-run first inning to secure 8-2 win over UT Tyler in Division II baseball championship

CARY, N.C. — The team that has scored first has won every game through the first three days of the Division II baseball championship.

That’s a good thing for West Chester. Getting off to fast starts is what the Rams do best.

For the second straight game at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, coach Mike LaRose’s top-seeded team took control early by jumping on its opponent for five runs in its first at bat. Just as it did in its opening victory against University of Indianapolis, WCU never looked back on the way to a 8-2 win over UT Tyler on Sunday that keeps it in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination national championship tournament.

The Rams will now get two days off while awaiting their next opponent, needing only one more victory to earn a trip to the best-of-three final series.

“We just like getting ahead early,” said left fielder Austin Stalker, who paced a 16-hit attack by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. “We know we have a target on our back wherever we go, so that first inning is big for us, getting ahead and showing them who West Chester is.”

The Rams are now 26-1 this season when scoring in the first inning and have outscored their opponents by a 76-24 margin in the opening frame.

Against UT Tyler (49-13) it was leadoff hitter Carter Rust who set the stage by lacing the fourth pitch of the game into left field for a solid single, stealing second, advancing to third on a Stalker single and scoring on an RBI hit by Patrick Gozdan for a quick 1-0 lead.

But WCU (46-10) was far from finished.

Before the Rams were finished, Tanner Donati had driven in a run on a sacrifice fly, Christian Michak plated another with a double and Harry Middlebrooks added two more with a two-out single to get their team off and running.

LaRosa credited hitting coach Evin Sullivan with the 5-0 headstart.

“He’s done a great job of preparing the guys,” LaRosa said. “Our game plan has been spot on, it seems like every game. It’s also a testament to our players to buy into and execute that game plan. We just have so much depth in our lineup. I feel like there’s never an easy out or an easy inning.”

The Rams extended their lead by scoring single runs in the second, fourth and eighth. But the insurance wasn’t necessary, although the pitching trio of Kyle Lazer, Drew Simpson and Landen Rozich didn’t make things easy.

They combined to walk six and hit three batters. But other than a two-run fourth, in which Tyler got its only runs, they were able to pitch in and out of trouble all night.

The Patriots left 15 runners on base, three of which came in the bottom of the eighth. But after barely missing an inning ending strike out on a controversial check swing call, freshman reliever Rozich regained his composure, overcame a foul popup catcher Caleb Strawhecker lost in the lights and struck out Tyler’s Drew Schmidt to end the threat.

Even more impressive than the escape itself is that Rozich is the Rams’ starting shortstop, who struck out three times at the plate in the game.

“That was huge,” LaRosa said. “Landen is a freshman, but he doesn’t play like a freshman. The bigger the spot, the better he gets. He’s so poised on the mound. All three of those guys had big spots on the mound. Nothing seems to rattle those guys.”